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Meetings · Eustis

Eustis Local Planning Agency — March 20, 2025 minutes

City of Eustis Local Planning Agency — March 20, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 5 members present) Duration: 5:30 PM – 5:37 PM (7 minutes) Location: Eustis City Hall

Attendance

  • Present: Chair Willie Hawkins, Vice Chair Gary Ashcraft, Ms. Emily Lee, Mr. Michael Holland, Mr. George Asbate
  • Absent: None
  • Staff Present: Jeff Richardson, Deputy Director of Development Services; Christine Halloran, City Clerk

Prior minutes: March 6, 2025 minutes approved (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft), 5-0.

Agenda Items

Item 1: Approval of Minutes — March 6, 2025

  • Type: Other (procedural)
  • Request: Approve the March 6, 2025 LPA minutes.
  • Action: Approved
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Ashcraft)

Item 2.1: Ordinance Number 25-07 — 2025-CPLUS-02, Future Land Use assignment for annexing parcel on State Road 44

  • Type: Comprehensive Plan Amendment (Future Land Use assignment on annexation)
  • Case Number: Ordinance Number 25-07 / 2025-CPLUS-02
  • Location: East side of State Road 44, across SR 44 from its intersection with Lake Joanna Drive (Alternate Key 2612525)
  • Applicant: [not available — property owner not named in the minutes]
  • Request: Assign a City future land use designation of Mixed Commercial Residential (MCR) to a parcel currently designated Urban Low in Lake County, contingent on annexation.
  • Current Zoning: Urban Low (Lake County future land use)
  • Proposed Zoning: Mixed Commercial Residential (City of Eustis future land use); Design District of Suburban Neighborhood assigned by companion Ordinance 25-08
  • Acreage: Approximately 2.86 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Transmit to City Commission
  • Action: Recommended for transmittal to the City Commission
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Holland, seconded Asbate)
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion:
    • Richardson described the three-ordinance package: Ordinance 25-06 annexes the property, 25-07 assigns the future land use, 25-08 assigns the Design District.
    • The annexation would not create an enclave. Richardson said the requested land use is consistent with surrounding designations and established patterns, and characterized the SR 44 corridor as urbanizing and wedged between the municipalities of Eustis and Mount Dora.
    • No wetlands on the property; some floodplain, with that area to be used ultimately for stormwater retention.
    • Water service available on the SR 44 side and on the east side; sewer available from Lift Station Number 28 to the south.
    • The board asked no questions. Asbate expressed support, citing the green space and retention pond.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 0 (hearing opened and closed at 5:36 PM)
  • General sentiment: No public comment recorded
  • Key concerns: None raised by the public

Key Signals

  • Staff named the SR 44 corridor as the pressure axis, in the city's own words: "urbanizing and wedged between the municipalities of Eustis and Mount Dora." That is the clearest statement in the Eustis record of where growth is being absorbed. SR 44 east of the city is the seam between two municipalities competing to annex the same unincorporated frontage; the land between them is being converted parcel by parcel rather than in master-planned blocks.

  • The three-ordinance pattern is the standard Eustis annexation instrument, and the LPA only ever sees the middle one. Annexation (25-06), future land use (25-07), design district (25-08) move as a package, but the Local Planning Agency's statutory role attaches to the comprehensive plan amendment alone. A resident tracking a nearby annexation who watches only the LPA agenda will see the land use item and never the annexation ordinance itself.

  • Utility availability, not demand, is doing the siting work. Richardson's evidence for consistency was infrastructure: water on two sides, sewer from Lift Station 28 to the south. Where the pipes already reach, the future land use follows. Lift Station 28's service area is a practical predictor of the next SR 44 conversions.

  • A 2.86-acre parcel moved to Mixed Commercial Residential in a seven-minute meeting with zero public comment. By the density figures Eustis staff put on the record later in 2025, MCR carries a maximum of 12 dwelling units per acre and Lake County's Urban Low a maximum of four — roughly a threefold delta on this parcel, uncontested by any speaker.

Raw Notes

  • Source: minutes PDF at https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/eustisfl-pubu/MEET-Minutes-daa5c78805c347b48dfc324bf81c31f7.pdf (2 pp.), retrieved 2026-08-15.
  • Minutes stamped "APPROVED 4/3/2025".
  • The minutes do not name the applicant or property owner for Alternate Key 2612525.
  • The floodplain area is designated for stormwater retention in the concept described, not excluded from the development footprint.
  • Minutes pages headed "Eustis City Commission" (clerk template artifact).
  • Density figures cited in Key Signals are not from this meeting: the MCR maximum of 12 units per acre is Richardson's statement in the July 17, 2025 LPA minutes; the Lake County Urban Low maximum of four units per acre is Carrino's statement in the April 17, 2025 LPA minutes and Richardson's in the June 19, 2025 minutes.

Connected records

1 connected record

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